First Issue of Mixx Zine. Mixx Publications was the company that would later be known as Tokyopop. They even had a magazine named Tokyopop (which I have a few copies that I’ll be scanning the covers and some ads from)

In this first issue there were 4 manga titles: Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth, Parasyte and Iceblade.

In Sailor Moon, the name for Usagi Tsukino was changed to Bunny – a literal translation. In the anime by DIC, her name was Serena. A little “Did You Know?” you can tell your friends.

Ads in this issue are:

First Home Video VHS ad for Dragonball Z with a release in August 1997.

Sega Saturn console game for Magic Knight Rayearth.

In addition to the magazine, Mixx also produced games. They had an ad for their PC Dating Sim game Graduation. They stated that it was the first anime game release in North America. WRONG. See the Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle for Super Nintendo ad in 1993 – 4 years prior to this bold claim. (I bet there are others, but this is the proof I can offer)

Sailor Moon VHS Box Set ad for Tree of Doom. Over 4 1/2 hours for only $49.99. The main call to action is a 1-800 number but there is a website.

B.U.M. Equipment – a non-geek brand was the back cover. Fashion!

This issue was on newsprint – similar to the Japanese manga publications. In Issue 2 and after, the magazine switches to a glossy paper for the manga pages.

The subscription card mailer states that a year’s subscription is $24.95 but they don’t mention how many issues you will be getting. That’s odd.

I scanned the credits page so you can see who was involved in this ground breaking issue. My sister loved this magazine. I imagine a lot of people first got exposed to manga through this magazine being at Barnes and Noble or Borders. —WAY before they became manga libraries with the manga herds just stuck in the manga section. (This isn’t a library folks! <shakes fists> Buy it!)